Monday, April 23

Agricultural information centres vital for farmers



Domestic food crop production and marketing in Uganda can be characterized as ad hoc. There remains a chronic unavailability of reliable information on the value chain for various produce as well as activities in the general market. This has resulted in the poor performance of farmers (and other players in the market) when conducting marketing transactions.

These farmers have limited access to information so as to make informed choices such as appropriate inputs (such as seeds and chemicals) and technology, and generally have to rely on the distributors of these products (middlemen). In this scenario, small farmers are characterized as existing at the mercy of these middlemen who manipulate the market by withholding retail prices and also demanding unreasonable credit.

In response to these types of situations faced by the farmers there is a need for more information centres so as to cater for these farmers who are ever being cheated by middlemen.For example, in Mbarara, they buy Matooke between Ugshs 1000- Ugshs 2000 from farmers who spend a lot of time caring for the crop before it is harvested and later sell the Matooke instantly in markets like Ruti between Ugshs 5000 and Ugs 7000,thus making a profit of between Ugshs 4000-5000 per bunch.

These information centres play a vital role when it comes to distribution of information to the farmers.

They also create a direct linkage to existing markets for closer working relationship between these buyers and the farmers.

Provision of accurate information to farmers on the most adequate farm supplies for their specific needs is also another vital area when it comes to information centres .

They also go along way and Supply the farmers with details of the specific quality and volume requirements of various target markets for their produce.

However most of the information in the centres is disseminated using ICT based methods and given the low literacy levels among farming communities, there is need to sensitise the farmers about the use of these information centres.



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